International language sites

Follow us

The unified patent court

The Unified Patent Court

We’re ideally placed to help you navigate the UPC

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) will change how patents are litigated across Europe.

In place of the current system, where patents are litigated in national courts, the UPC will have jurisdiction over a market of more than 300m consumers. Patentees will be able to obtain Europe-wide injunctions from a single legal proceeding, but will risk having their patents revoked with Europe-wide effect. The UPC will have its own rules on choice of venue, which will run in parallel with the existing national systems for at least seven years. The new regime will change the tactics and economics driving the behaviour of litigants.

At Freshfields, we have leading practices in the national patent systems on which the new UPC system is based, and we’ve been closely involved in its development. We’re ideally placed to help you navigate the new system to achieve your commercial goals.